By Sharol Wilder Crandall
For The Vidette
The 55th Annual Wilder Family Reunion Potluck Picnic was held at Lake Sylvia on Aug. 12.
This year we had about 90 people attend. The youngest was one week old, baby Leora Dryden. The oldest was 94 years old, Adeline Connelly.
Tom and Marge Hopkins came from Lehi, Utah — serious genealogists.
Wayne and Harriet Hopkins came from Roseville, Calif. Ray Rifenburg came from San Rafael, Calif.
Why Lake Sylvia? Michael Luark discovered the lake on April 29, 1866. He was looking for water power for a sawmill. The first lumber from this sawmill went out July 7, 1871. James Nelson Wilder came to work at the sawmill and married Michael and Rebecca’s youngest child (of 12 children), Minerva Captolia “Minnie”. They had four children. She died at age 21. James’ second marriage was to Laura May Hickey and they had 13 more children. All were born at Lake Sylvia. His first son and second child, Silas Wilder, bought his father’s place at Lake Sylvia.
When Silas’ son Cecil was a baby in 1913 they moved the family down to below the falls at the power plant. Silas’ wife, Elsie Valentine Wilder, ran the power plant for many years along with raising their 12 children and the oldest daughter’s three. They were called the “Wild Children of the Forest.”
They walked over the hill to school on their father’s trail through the woods. One cousin, Doris Vessey (now 90) tells about being chased by Mobick’s bull in a field on the way to school. The old time stories we hear at these reunions are priceless.
So, if James Nelson Wilder had 17 and Silas had 12 at Lake Sylvia, then that is the right place to have the reunion. There have been years we have been rained out (imagine that) and Glen Vance and Teri Daneker are there to rescue us with another place to meet.
The Friends of Schafer and Lake Sylvia (FOSLS) Stet Palmer and Patrick Wadsworth came to the reunion to give a talk on the Legacy Project. It’s an all-season pavilion at the lake. Architect Will Foster has done a fantastic job — retractable walls and all that. The community has raised $182,000 of the $200,000 needed for the state to go ahead. If you would like to donate (www.fosls.org), it would help finish the fundraising.
We wondered how the property got to be a state park. We called Sam Wotipka, the State Parks historian, for this information. In 1935, the city proposed donating their land around Lake Sylvia for a state park. State Parks responded that they would only move forward with this proposal if the Wilders tract was obtained. So for $10, Silas and Elsie sold to the city their 12 and a half acres. The deed says 12 and a half acres more or less. It’s where the campground is today.
The reunion is a potluck and the Wilders like to eat. The kitchen shelter was laden with food. Then there is “the Bingo.” Glen Vance and Bill Muhlhauser know where to get it together for us. There is a picnic table full of donated prizes. The biggest of these this year were two Seahawks game tickets. The tickets were donated by Cliff Wilder, our Wilder genealogist and Wilder Recall newsletter editor, and his son Dan Wilder.
How lucky we are to have so many come from near and far to be family.
Also, I want to thank the park staff, Ranger Miles Wenzel, Kody Tryon and Glenndell, who take such great care of our park. And my husband Ron who keeps track of the names and addresses, no easy task with all the yearly changes. We sent out about 110 notices this year.
I was the last Wilder born at the lake (in 1940) and it has been a special part of my life ever since.
